The
now 79-year-old from Washington, D.C., said her reason for joining the
online world was due more to her desire to keep up with the times than a
means for socialization. To the former school counselor, nothing could
replace the value of face-to-face communication with all its inflections
and tones, a characteristic absent from instant messaging and texting.

She didn't appreciate the powerful
impact of social media until one day she was overcome with curiosity and
typed her maiden name, "Morpurgo," into her Facebook search bar. Not
expecting to find anything, it surprised her when she discovered distant
family members whom she had never met.

After
connecting with each other, they eventually created a "Morpurgo family"
group page to organize online communication. The page has since grown
and now consists of over 150 members. Two years after making initial
contact, the family organized a gathering in Trieste, Italy, the land of
their roots. They shared family stories, visited cemeteries, explored
historical sites and even the Morpurgo Museum.
These visits helped them trace the family line back to the 16th
century. It was a special experience for Weinstein, who lost contact
with her Italian relatives after immigrating to the United States in
1939.

"It's nice to know you
have other relatives, more family than just the immediate family here,"
Weinstein said. "Just finding people with the same background, same name
is amazing. It was a very interesting thing that would have never
happened if it wasn't for the internet and Facebook."

Older
adults across the United States are adjusting to a world of advancing
technology. Not only are they accepting the changes, but some, like
Weinstein, are actively implementing technology in their daily lives.

According to a May 2017 study conducted
by Pew Research Center, 67 percent of adults age 65 and older in the
United States were active online users in 2016 — a big jump from 2000
when only 14 percent of seniors claimed to be internet users.

Over
the next decade as the baby boomer generation continues to age, the
number of seniors using the internet is expected to increase,
highlighting benefits and challenges of its impact on a large aging
population — including both positive and negative effects on the brain.Read more... Source: KDRV

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About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.